Cheap-Ass Tools: Novelty Pocket LED Flashlight for $4.50

These aren’t exactly going to make killer work lights, but it seems everyone I know loves the idea of these little, bright pocket LED flashlights. And who wouldn’t? The form factor is perfect for tossing in a camping bag or your glovebox. Of course, the high-end ones can run you upwards of $50 — and blind you from 50′. But the cheap-ass models, while significantly less powerful, get pretty cheap indeed. I guess they’re pretty much the penlight of the new century.

PS: Yes, I know there are shops online (and even on Amazon) advertising this for as little as $0.01. But you’ll pay an imperial assload of shipping, which means you’ll likely pay more than $4.50 all said and done. Hence why I picked this one.

Actually, HF just did a coupon for a free one – no purchase necessary. Also, I just purchased a package of 15 of these at Home Depot for a few pennies under $15, batteries included. They have them in a bin near the registers. That’s enough to put one nearly everywhere and have a few left to pass to a few friends. And, they are actually reasonably bright. 3 batteries per light and the pack had 15 lights and 45 batteries. I don’t know of anyplace I can buy 45 “AAA” batteries for $15!

You can get these for free from Harbor Freight. They have coupons all the time and sometimes they just give them to you with no coupon. We have a pile of them at work and I have a few around the house. Not great but not bad for the price!

I have bought my share of these as well as several other cheap led flashlights, and have yet to be satisfied with the reliability of any of the 3 cell jobs (Bad connections/switch problems.)

My new favorite led flashlights are 2 cell flashlights in plastic cases with side switches. The little ones use 2 AA cells and put out equivalent light to the 3 cell AAA jobs. The big ones use 2 D cells and throw significantly more light. I got mine at Big Lots for reasonable prices ($5.00 for the big ones and $2.00 for the little ones iirc.) They also had a 4 cell AA job that puts out a bunch of light but I have my reservations about how it is put together internally (it works good though.)
Bob

These lights that run on 3 AAA batteries start out bright, but get dim as you use them, the LEDs are direct drive from the batteries. I carry a small LED light that uses a single AA cell, and is much much brighter than these multi LED types. It was about $20 at Target. These cheapies are great for scattering around the house and cars etc, but the batteries can start getting expensive.

My rant. It’s a crime against nature to make a light like this that uses AAA batteries. AAs have 2.5x the capacity and cost the SAME. If the product is tiny, then OK, you need AAAs, but it really BUGs me when I see devices like this, that are not THAT small, but still use AAAs. There are plenty of AA flashlights out there, even cheap ones.